54. The war for kindness
This was one of the most intriguingly titled sessions of SXSW. First thing on Tuesday morning, Jamil Zaki filled the biggest room in the convention centre, at the top of the famed escalators. His talk - its full name 'The War for Kindness: Building Empathy in a Fractured World' - drew a massive crowd. If you were there, you wouldn't have been disappointed.
Jamil Zaki is the director of the Stanford Neuroscience lab, and a writer for multiple big name publications, including The washington post and The New York Times. His basic thesis that he explored in this talk is that though empathy seems to be diminishing, and the world is getting harsher, empathy is an ability that can be learned and taught, and grown to make the world a better place.
He began talking about the work he has done with children. Though admitting that conformity is not always a positive thing, he explained that it can be used to reinforce positive behaviour. If children believe that empathy is an important quality for young people their age they endeavour to show it. They believe it is valuable, and they recognise and reward it in their peers.
If you can then show adults that empathy is a skill, rather than a thing we are 'born with' we adapt to that understanding, and can be encouraged to develop empathy in ourselves and others.
The belief that we are born with or without empathy is a strong one, but if it can be broken, then the world becomes a more fluid place. It also becomes a place that can be made better in new exciting ways. If you were in the audience this may have been a dislocating listen, but dislocating in a good way. More on this later...
Jamil Zaki is the director of the Stanford Neuroscience lab, and a writer for multiple big name publications, including The washington post and The New York Times. His basic thesis that he explored in this talk is that though empathy seems to be diminishing, and the world is getting harsher, empathy is an ability that can be learned and taught, and grown to make the world a better place.
If you can then show adults that empathy is a skill, rather than a thing we are 'born with' we adapt to that understanding, and can be encouraged to develop empathy in ourselves and others.
The belief that we are born with or without empathy is a strong one, but if it can be broken, then the world becomes a more fluid place. It also becomes a place that can be made better in new exciting ways. If you were in the audience this may have been a dislocating listen, but dislocating in a good way. More on this later...
Comments
Post a Comment